


For the Ride

by HimereCalliope



Category: Staged (UK TV)
Genre: Banter, Dialogue-Only, Gen, Post-Canon, Spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-11
Updated: 2020-06-11
Packaged: 2021-03-04 00:47:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 547
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24654799
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HimereCalliope/pseuds/HimereCalliope
Summary: "Do you ever wonder if it's all some kind of... I don't know, collective fit of madness that we're having?"[Seriously, heed the spoiler warning. If you haven't watched all ofStagedyet, you probably don't want to read this.]
Relationships: David & Michael (Staged)
Comments: 6
Kudos: 52





	For the Ride

"Do you ever wonder... I mean, well, I don't know... "

"What?"

"Well, I... it's just... I don't mean to say that, ah..."

"Out with it. Come on."

"Do you ever wonder if it's all some kind of... I don't know, collective fit of madness that we're having?"

"I don't have to _wonder_ , I know that. Yesterday, we found a way to do twister via video call. And you somehow managed to lose to Lucy, who wasn't even playing."

"Yeah, but... on a larger scale."

"How large a scale are we talking?"

"Everything we're doing here. All of it. It's all a bit, well, _insane_ , isn't it? I wrote a script in under three weeks, Jo agreed to produce it sight unseen, despite, mind you, the fact that I'm also directing it, having never previously directed anything in my life, and you're so committed to starring in it that we're already fighting about billing. With battleships."

"Ah, that."

"And in the meantime, we're still improvising rehearsals for an absurdist Italian play in the vague hope that maybe in a couple of months when we hopefully all get to leave our homes again, the first thing the British people are going to want to see is _that_."

"It does sound a bit insane when you put it like that."

"So...?"

"So put it another way."

"That's not a solution. That's not even an answer!"

"Sure it is!"

"How? How is it an answer?"

"In that it's something I said in reply to something you asked. But more importantly, it's also a solution."

" _How?_ "

"It's all about how you look at it. Perspective, you know. Sure, you can say we've all gone mad. That we haven't spoken to other adults in weeks. That we've lost any objectivity we ever had and are just living in a hermetic bubble of increasingly heightened absurdity with each other. Or..."

"Or?"

"Or you can say we're artists. Thriving through collaboration. Taking creative risks, and creating something profound and of the moment."

"...Would you say we're _thriving_?"

"Would you say we're not?"

"Would you get mad at me if I said we're not?"

"Would you hold it against me?"

"...Would you agree to table this negotiation until... I don't know, some time when I'm more awake?"

"Sure."

"You really don't think we've all lost our minds?"

"Do you actually want an honest answer to that?"

"Yes! Yes I do! Why do you think I ask you these things?"

"Because when you hold too many soliloquies in your garden, your neighbors get worried?"

"Well, yes. But also, because I want to hear from you! Because, well– you know. I trust you. To, to see when I'm going off the rails."

"Well. Unfortunately for you, we're both sharing a metaphorical train at the moment."

"Yes."

"But that's the thing, isn't it? The whole world is going through some version of that. Certainly our part of it. And none of us have any idea what to expect on the other side. So why not make big plans? Try something new and see what happens? It's all the same risk, now."

"Hm. I suppose you have a point there."

"And, for what it's worth?"

"Hm?"

"If I am going crazy... I'm glad you're along for the ride." 

"...Same here."


End file.
